Sunday, December 12, 2004

Do Dems EVER Realize It When They Lose?

"[Senate] Republicans want control over two-thirds of each committee’s resources, but Democrats have called that unacceptable. They want a 50-50 split in the 109th Congress."

Sounds outrageous on its face, doesn't it? The Dems are far into the minority, and by rights shouldn't get any greater percentage of resources than their numbers proportionately entitle them to.

But it's even worse than that:

"'Democrats instituted the 66%-33% division of resources favoring the majority party,' [Mississippi Senator Trent] Lott said. 'That was in place during the many, many years of Democratic tyranny.'

Specifically....

"Don Ritchie, associate Senate historian, said that between the mid-1970s and 2001, the majority party controlled two-thirds of committee resources."

So, to tally it up, the donks themselves instituted the 2-1 resource allocation when they ran the Senate, it's been in place even under Republican stewardship, and the practice has been SOP for at least thirty years, but now they've decided they don't like it, so Republicans have to go halfsies with them because...well, I guess because to do otherwise "wouldn't be fair" or something.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that Dems would make such a ludicrous demand. What will surprise me is if Republicans don't end up splitting the difference and going 60-40 or 55-45 instead. Obviously Harry Reid either thinks that Bill Frist can be rolled, or is trying to "mark his territory" by making this pre-emptive power play.

If Senator Frist wants to be taken seriously on high-stakes threats like "going nuclear" on rules changes to outlaw judicial nomination filibusters, much less as a 2008 presidential contender, he'd be well advised to tell Senator Reid where he can shove his figurative tin cup.